Right now I am learning that following Christ is not as much about my doing obedience as much as it is surrendering my desires to His.

This post is a post of thoughts that have been forming in my mind for quite some time. It hurts me to write it because the truths that about to be mentioned are incredibly true and hit very close to home. However, it is needful. It is needful in the sense that our spiritual lives depend on the content. I hope that you will read, enjoy, and give feedback.

Some time ago, I was scanning the internet for information about a certain apartment community for work. (That is what I do for a job.) I happened to come across a community logo that caught my eye and captured my thoughts at the moment. It is the one that you see displayed here. Life Centre’d Around You. This would be a sad discovery if it were not so true. Unfortunately, we all know how true this is in our own lives. It is so true that an apartment community can set it as a slogan off of which it can profit. You see, this is true already in all of us since the day of birth. It is engrained in us. It is a part of us. To some of us it is more recognizable outwardly; for the rest of us it is more subtle. For this community, catering to the wants of the residents was primary in their agenda in order to gain. Swimming pools, jacuzzis, onsite restaurants, pet services, house cleaning services, cyber café’s, and many more amenities were just a way of saying that they want their prospects to have their lives “centre’d around” them.

To us, our flesh propagates this same thing in many different forms. The first one that comes to mind after thinking about this subject for so long is the internet and networking sites. Everyone wants their place on the internet. It is as if people want everything about themselves to be known to everyone. They think that they know what is best. Everything that they post, upload, or display is about themselves. We have sections where we can write “about me”. We list those things in life that we enjoy most. If you get on the write site, (i.e. MySpace.com) you can even design your own corner on the web. It is the one place where the “real you” comes out. You can be friends with all the people that you have ever known in your life who never really cared anything about you in the first place. We post our pictures as billboards advertising ourselves to just get people to find out more about you. This is how we advertise Life Centre’d Around You.

For those not so computer savvy, we propagate this slogan in the form of personal outward show. We buy clothing that makes heads turn. We try to see how many compliments we can get for an outfit that is part of the latest trend. Head over to Greenville Tech. You will hear many people who advertise this logo by the $1000 subwoofers that rattle the bumpers off of their $500 cars. We think it is so great that we can go show off your latest buy to the world. This is just another way to advertise Life Centre’d Around You.

We believers confront the same thing in the form of religion. We think that by living a life of rules and restrictions called legalism we can display Christ when we are missing the point completely. We try to attain God’s grace because we are trying to live holy lives. We try to show the “world” and “carnal Christians” (which is an oxymoron, BTW) that to be pleasing to God we must abstain from our culture, world, and anything else that the world does even though it is absurd to even try such a thing. On the other side, we have those who live their freedoms out loud so that those that live by rules will know that we can live in “freedom”. We think that by living in “freedom” we are truly hitting what Christ wants from us. Sadly, religion becomes an advertisement of Life Centre’d Around You.

A little closer to home, we bicker and argue about getting a new pastor because we think that we need something to grasp in times of need. We don’t want someone too young and inexperienced even though he has a doctorate. We would rather send him off to start a church without elders and deacons to keep a close watch. We think that we are too good to get some one with so little experience but the “real needy” people can have him. A man who is ready to go anywhere and do anything to use the gifts that God has given him is too unstable that we could not help him. Remember, this is Life Centre’d Around You.

“Where are you going with this, Josh?” you are probably asking yourself by now (if you are still reading this). My point in all of this is that life needs to be “centre’d” around God. Who are we to think that we are deserving of any fame, glory, power, show, conceit, or pride? We think that “enjoying the good life” is really what God wants. We think that by showing off our little corner on the world wide web is really accomplishing something. We think that by showing off how rich but stupid we are is really going to get us somewhere. Do we honestly think that by showing how strict we are or how free we are is really showing the love of Christ? And, do we think that we can just sit back and enjoy someone preaching at us even though we have several qualified elders who have been teaching very well and we have the greatest Teacher of all time living in us to teach us more than all the men in history combined can do??? Where is God in all this? We have naturally cast God aside by saying that our “freedom of the will” is helping us attain His great grace. What is wrong with us?!? It’s called sin. It reigns in all of us. You don’t have to go far to see that.

So what do we do in these cases? Look to God. He is the only One who can get us out of this pit of our own thinking. While I am not saying that any or all of these things are wrong, I am saying be careful. God gives us many things to enjoy. Social networking can be used in great ways. Again, God has given us right ways to enjoy life. God has called us to be “free” yet disciplined, but his emphasis is being like Him and to love. And, it is good to be careful in situations and to precaution. In all of this, though, pursue God and His glory. This temporary life is going to waste away before you know it, and there will be another generation of selfish being on this planet. Pass on to them the knowledge, grace, and love of our wonderful Savior. Think hard about your decisions whether they are really something that God has given to you to enjoy or whether it is something that God has really blessed you with. Let your life point others to a “Life Centre’d Around God”.

- — Josh Blaha

This article got me very excited for the service I am using. I switched from Cingular to Verizon hoping for better service. I indeed got better service, but I also could not set my own music for ringtones, use file transfer, or any other common personal options. Verizon is now changing that policy. In fact, they are even thinking about using a Linux based OS on the phones that would allow open sourcing for Google features which will embrace such services like WiFi, Maps, email, VOIP, and other convenient options. It looks like they are just being jealous of the Apple iPhone. Just look at how fast they came out with the LG Voyager and Venus after the iPhone. However, I can’t imagine that it will be without an additional cost. Who knows? We will see.